UK TV Abroad: BBC on-demand service launches in Malaysia

The BBC's commercial arm has confirmed the launch of BBC Player in Malaysia, giving viewers in the country enhanced access to UK television programmes on an on-demand basis.

It follows the launch of the service in Singapore last year and is part of a project that is rising out of the ashes of the BBC's Global iPlayer service, which closed in 2015.

The multi-genre service, from the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, is available exclusively to subscribers of Telekom Malaysia Berhad’s (TM) IPTV service, HyppTV.

Hypp TV viewers will be able to watch the very best of BBC content anytime anywhere – online, as well as via an app on their smartphones and tablets. BBC Worldwide’s global brands, BBC First, BBC Brit, BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies, will all be available alongside BBC World News.

In addition BBC Player viewers will have exclusive access to the latest series of Top Gear shortly after it has been shown in the UK. Later this year, subscribers will be able to watch the new series of Doctor Who on the service. Other shows available on the BBC Player include Planet Earth II,The Great British Bake Off and The Graham Norton Show.

Paul Dempsey, President, Global Markets, BBC Worldwide said,

‘To launch BBC Player in Malaysia so soon after its successful introduction to Singapore is testament to both the very high quality of this product and the digital demand for our programming. This latest launch clearly signals the potential for Player to offer something new to our partners and audiences in further markets.’

BBC Player is available as an app from Apple's App store app store and Android's Google Play store for users in either Malaysia or Singapore.

The BBC plans to strike up further partnerships to make more of its content available on-demand in other countries. In the USA, the BBC has teamed up with ITV to launch BritBox, through which it now provides on-demand content to subscribers in the United States. There are plans to make BritBox available in more countries.